Along an assembly line, various types of articles, such as for example, diapers and other absorbent articles, may be assembled by adding components to and/or otherwise modifying an advancing, continuous web of material. For example, in some processes, advancing webs of material are combined with other advancing webs of material. In other examples, individual components created from advancing webs of material are combined with advancing webs of material, which in turn, are then combined with other advancing webs of material. In some cases, individual components created from an advancing web or webs are combined with other individual components created from other advancing webs. Webs of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheets, leg cuffs, waist bands, absorbent core components, front and/or back ears, fastening components, and various types of elastic webs and components such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, stretch side panels, and waist elastics. Once the desired component parts are assembled, the advancing web(s) and component parts are subjected to a final knife cut to separate the web(s) into discrete diapers or other absorbent articles.
Some absorbent articles have components that include elastomeric laminates. Such elastomeric laminates may include an elastic material bonded to one or more nonwovens. The elastic material may include an elastic film and/or elastic strands. In some laminates, a plurality of elastic strands are joined to a nonwoven while the plurality of strands are in a stretched condition so that when the elastic strands relax, the nonwoven gathers between the locations where the nonwoven is bonded to the elastic strands forming corrugations. The resulting elastomeric laminate is stretchable to the extent that the corrugations allow the elastic strands to elongate.
During the manufacture of elastic laminates, problems can be encountered in the manufacturing process when bonding elastic strands to substrates. For example, tensioned elastic strands may break during the assembly process. If a strand breaks under tension, a loose end of the broken strand may tend to snap back a significant distance toward an upstream portion of the manufacturing process. As such, the loose end may become entangled in other upstream manufacturing components, which in turn, may necessitate stopping the process in order to properly rethread the elastic strand to the intended position on the production machinery. In some configurations, several strands may advance through a manufacture process in close proximity to one another. Thus, a violent and uncontrolled retraction of a loose end of a broken strand may also cause additional strands to become broken. Consequently, it would be beneficial to provide a method and apparatus for producing an elastomeric laminate that is capable of automatically capturing and isolating upstream end portions of elastic strands that break during the production process to help reduce the amount of rethreading that would otherwise be necessary and to help reduce the likelihood of causing adjacent elastic strands in the process to become broken. Such methods and apparatus may also be used as a troubleshooting device to help identify the specific locations along the assembly line where elastic strands are breaking.